diff --git a/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/utils/pod_manager.py b/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/utils/pod_manager.py
index c65150b4181d4..a1fd511761d6e 100644
--- a/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/utils/pod_manager.py
+++ b/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/utils/pod_manager.py
@@ -121,7 +121,16 @@ def __init__(
         :param cluster_context: context of the cluster
         """
         super().__init__()
-        self._client = kube_client or get_kube_client(in_cluster=in_cluster, cluster_context=cluster_context)
+        if kube_client:
+            self._client = kube_client
+        else:
+            self._client = get_kube_client(in_cluster=in_cluster, cluster_context=cluster_context)
+            warnings.warn(
+                "`kube_client` not supplied to PodManager. "
+                "This will be a required argument in a future release. "
+                "Please use KubernetesHook to create the client before calling.",
+                DeprecationWarning,
+            )
         self._watch = watch.Watch()
 
     def run_pod_async(self, pod: V1Pod, **kwargs) -> V1Pod:
diff --git a/tests/providers/cncf/kubernetes/utils/test_pod_manager.py b/tests/providers/cncf/kubernetes/utils/test_pod_manager.py
index 5299b6a4be778..9cb68b8897e5d 100644
--- a/tests/providers/cncf/kubernetes/utils/test_pod_manager.py
+++ b/tests/providers/cncf/kubernetes/utils/test_pod_manager.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 
 from airflow.exceptions import AirflowException
 from airflow.providers.cncf.kubernetes.utils.pod_manager import PodManager, PodPhase, container_is_running
+from tests.test_utils.providers import get_provider_version, object_exists
 
 
 class TestPodManager:
@@ -331,6 +332,20 @@ def test_fetch_container_running_follow(
         assert ret.last_log_time == DateTime(2021, 1, 1, tzinfo=Timezone('UTC'))
         assert ret.running is exp_running
 
+    def test_pod_manager_get_client_call_deprecation(self):
+        """Ensure that kube_client.get_kube_client is removed from pod manager in provider 6.0."""
+        kube_client_path = 'airflow.providers.cncf.kubernetes.utils.pod_manager.get_kube_client'
+        if not object_exists(kube_client_path):
+            raise Exception(
+                "You must remove this test. It only exists to remind us to remove `get_kube_client`."
+            )
+
+        if get_provider_version('apache-airflow-providers-cncf-kubernetes') >= (6, 0):
+            raise Exception(
+                "You must now remove `get_kube_client` from PodManager "
+                "and make kube_client a required argument."
+            )
+
 
 def params_for_test_container_is_running():
     """The `container_is_running` method is designed to handle an assortment of bad objects
diff --git a/tests/test_utils/providers.py b/tests/test_utils/providers.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..84a89bef81cd8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_utils/providers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import semver
+
+
+def object_exists(path: str):
+    """Returns true if importable python object is there."""
+    from airflow.utils.module_loading import import_string
+
+    try:
+        import_string(path)
+        return True
+    except ImportError:
+        return False
+
+
+def get_provider_version(provider_name):
+    """
+    Returns provider version given provider package name.
+
+    Example::
+        if provider_version('apache-airflow-providers-cncf-kubernetes') >= (6, 0):
+            raise Exception(
+                "You must now remove `get_kube_client` from PodManager "
+                "and make kube_client a required argument."
+            )
+    """
+    from airflow.providers_manager import ProvidersManager
+
+    info = ProvidersManager().providers[provider_name]
+    return semver.VersionInfo.parse(info.version)